As a medicine hunter, I seek natural, plant-based remedies of high value to health. My work generally takes me to faraway locales where, thanks in great measure to the generous sharing of time and knowledge by the local experts, I am able to gain an in depth understanding of various traditional medicines. In the spring of 2003, I went to China with Joy Pan from Long Star to research a plant extract called Erigeron Breviscapini known by the popular name LifeFlower. Joy shared some traditional and folk information on the plant explaining that its extract is highly beneficial to the cardiovascular system and it helps stroke patients to recover function in cases of stroke related paralysis. Because this plant comes from Yunnan, the most southwestern province of China, a great deal of the science on LifeFlower is in Chinese and has not yet been translated. Nonetheless, Joy shared with me a toxicity report, a mouse memory study, a human memory study, several study abstracts and the results of an 18,000 patient research project conducted in twenty-one Chinese hospitals which showed that LifeFlower helps to restore muscular control and overall function in a high percentage of stroke patients.

Though the information I garnered was by no means comprehensive, it suggested that LifeFlower could be one of those few Holy Grail plants, a true life-saving remedy of potential value to the millions of people who suffer strokes each year. (an estimated half million in the US alone). A plant demonstrating significant benefits against this massive killer would truly be a miracle medicine. Sometime during the 1960's word was spreading throughout China about a plant being used by the traditional Maio people to treat rheumatoid arthritis. That plant turned out to be Erigeron Breviscapus. Subsequent pharmacological investigation of this plant confirmed its uses for cerebrovascular health. In fact, an old traditional medicinal text entitled "Dian Nong Ben Cao" published in the Han language listed the use of Erigeron Breviscapus for treatment of stroke victims. That claim turned out to be exactly correct.

On July 4th, 2002, the US Patent Office granted a patent to Farlong International in California for Breviscapinum and its extraction. According to experts involved with the plant, it is specifically the phytochemical Breviscapinum that aids cerebrovascular health. In the text of the patent I found the following: "...Breviscapinum ... increases blood flow for significantly decreasing cerebrovascular resistance, raises permiability of blood brain barrier, increases nutritional blood flow of myocardium; raises immune function of body macrophage cell and counteraction against blood and oxygen depletion induced by hypophyseal pituitrin and thrombocyte agglutination induced by adenosine diphespate inhibiting internal thrombosis and promoting activity of cellulose dissolution; increases peripheral and coronary blood flow, effective for sequelas induced by cerebrovascular accident; palsy, coronary heart disease and angina pectoris." If the information in the patent checked out well, then Erigeron Breviscapus, or LifeFlower, was in fact a very special plant medicine deserving of much greater recognition and use. I spoke with Joy and she arranged a trip to Yunnan for me to see the LifeFlower situation for myself.

LifeFlower itself is a small perennial plant with oval leaves about six inches in diameter that lies close to the ground and has slender stalks with purple flowers. The plant grows wild in various regions of Yunnan but is actually quite sparse so overpicking would certainly endanger it. For this reason, LifeFlower is cultivated in several places throughout the region. After visiting several areas where the plant is cultivated, we moved on to the city of Gejiu located several hours south of Kunming, the provincial capitol of Yunnan. In Gejiu, we visited a manufacturing facility where LifeFlower is transformed from a plant to an injectable form designed to save lives. LifeFlower ampules are used in hospitals throughout the country to treat stroke patients. One acre of LifeFlower yields 150 kilograms of the dried plant and it takes 100 kilograms of the dried plant to produce one kilogram of the final extract. LifeFlower plants are started from seed and take one year to mature. At this point the plants are harvested, dried and cleaned. Next, the plant goes through a patented extraction process which yields Brevicapinum, the agent believed to be the source of its protective and healing capabilities. LifeFlower is also available in 20 milligram tablets and is usually prescribed in a recommended dosage of six tablets daily. The injection form is used in acute cases but the tablets have also been found to be highly beneficial to the brain.